As is well-known, motor vehicles typically include side-view mirrors to provide the vehicle driver with a suitable field of view extending to the side and behind the vehicle. Conventionally, an orientation or angular position of the side-view mirror reflective surface is adjustable by pivoting to tailor the driver field of view as desired. For vehicles towing trailers, often such side view mirrors (also referred to as tow mirrors) are also equipped with mechanisms for longitudinally extending the side-view mirror, i.e. altering a distance from the vehicle side at which the mirror reflective surface is held. This allows adjusting the driver's field of view to accommodate the presence of vehicle-attached trailers of varying length and width dimensions. When the vehicle is not towing a trailer, the extendable side-view mirrors may be returned to an original configuration as specified by the driver. Such mechanisms for altering a side-view mirror length and/or orientation of the mirror reflective surface may be manually adjustable, or more conveniently may comprise powered mechanisms operable by the driver from the interior of the passenger cabin.
Most drivers will not tow a trailer with their vehicle all of the time, but instead will occasionally attach a trailer for recreational or work purposes. Alternatively, some drivers may tow a variety of trailers using the same vehicle. In each situation, the driver typically must adjust the extendable side view mirrors to provide a field of view to his or her satisfaction each time the trailer is attached to the vehicle. This can be inconvenient for the user. Moreover, this can be dangerous if the user neglects to make the needed adjustments to the side view mirror position prior to operating the vehicle with the trailer in tow.
To solve this and other problems, the present disclosure relates to vehicle tow mirror control systems and methods. Advantageously, the described systems and methods automatically adjust the vehicle side view mirrors to a predetermined extension length and/or reflective surface orientation in accordance with specific identifying indicia for a particular trailer being towed. Still more, such specific trailer identifying indicia are stored, and so by the simple expedient of approaching and/or attaching the specific trailer to the vehicle, the extendable side view mirrors are configured as to extension and reflective surface orientation to the user's particular specifications according to the stored trailer identifying indicia.